BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has broken the law yet again by endorsing the party student wing’s new committee, feels a former election commissioner.
The Representation of the People Order (RPO) – a set of electoral laws – does not allow any party to have any affiliate organisations in or outside the country, but both the BNP and the ruling Awami League have been flouting this rule.
Like before, Khaleda has again approved the new committee of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the BNP’s student wing, an act former Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain feels violates the RPO.
Khaleda had approved the Chhatra Dal committee two years back also.
This time, too, the new committee was formed with her approval, said a media statement sent out on Tuesday signed by BNP Student Affairs Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie.
The RPO forbids the formation of any front organisation of students, teachers or professionals by political parties.
“There can be no student wing affiliated to any party as per the electoral law. So, the approval of a (student body) committee by the top leader certainly breaks that law,” says Hossain.
ইসির সামনে কঠিন সময়: সাখাওয়াত
He said the party’s attention should be drawn to such illegality.
“After that, the Election Commission can caution them and take steps in case the law is broken in future.”
The Election Commission can cancel a party’s registration if it breaks the electoral law.
No party can have any branch organisation abroad, says the RPO, but neither the BNP nor the Awami League have shown any respect for it.
None of the Election Commissioners led by the present Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed were willing comment on the issue.
Election Commissioner Md Javed Ali had said last November that they would not take any action on the political parties maintaining affiliate organisations in violation of the electoral law unless they received written complaints.
Source: Bd news24
